Hey Neighbor
by KaitieD
Summary: Steve is fed up with his rude neighbor. But maybe he isn't really so bad...


Steve sighed, letting his head drop to thump on top of his desk. The impact was thankfully lessened by the stack of papers and notebooks piled on top. It was already 1am and he was nowhere near done with the paper due in the morning for his Western Civilization class, not to mention studying for the quiz in Cross-Cultural Psychology and being two chapters behind in the reading for Philosophy of Human Nature. He was being stressed and the last thing he needed was another interruption from the obnoxious guy next door.

Glaring at the wall separating their rooms, Steve listened to the pounding music being blasted so loud, they might as well be in the same room. They were a month into the semester, but Steve hadn't developed much of a social life and took his studies seriously. He spent most of his time in his room reading and writing papers, so he hadn't even met his neighbor, but felt that he knew him well enough already.

If it wasn't loud music at all hours of the night, it was any number of other things. He had to be in the engineering program or something because Steve could swear he heard tools being used. Then there was the sex. Clearly his neighbor had no problem finding dates. Men and women, from what he could tell by the moans and screams coming through the walls. Steve tried to tell himself he wasn't jealous, it was just inconsiderate of the guy to not think about his neighbors, but the truth was that he did wish he knew some people and could get some once in a while.

Exhausted and unable to concentrate, Steve banged his fist angrily on the wall, but it was made out of cement blocks, making the tiny dorm look like a prison cell, and he doubted the guy next door heard anything. Throwing himself down on the bed, he grimaced at how uncomfortable the thin mattress was. At least he had the room to himself after his roommate freaked and dropped out after only a few days. Burying his head under a pillow, he thought that maybe if he could grab a couple hours of sleep, he'd wake up to some peace and quiet and could finally get his paper done.

Unfortunately, after only catching 20 minutes of sleep, Steve was awoken by the music getting even louder, which he honestly hadn't thought possible. He'd finally had it and decided that it was past time to confront the jackass that was keeping him up. Pulling on a semi-clean t-shirt that had been laying on the floor, Steve walked over to the next room and stood before the closed door.

After banging loudly on the door, Steve stood waiting, not surprised that the occupant probably hadn't heard the knocking over the music. Just about to turn and give up, the door swung open and he finally saw the man that had been making at least part of his life miserable.

The guy was shorter than Steve by a good few inches and had dark, messy hair that looked like it hadn't been combed in awhile. A little stubble graced his chin and he wore just a pair of low slung pajama pants that seemed to be just barely clinging to his hips. He leaned against the doorjamb with an annoyed look on his face and looked up at Steve.

"Yeah?"

"Seriously?" Steve asked incredulously. "It's like, 2am, and it sounds like you have a rave going on it there! Believe it or not, some of us have work to do or would like to sleep."

"I'm Tony" the guy said, holding out his hand, "Wanna come in for a drink?"

Steve was in no mood to deal with it. Clearly the guy was an arrogant asshole and he shouldn't have even wasted his time trying to come over and ask him to consider everyone else's situations. Rolling his eyes, he turned and strode back to his room, slamming the door in disgust. Figures he'd get stuck living next to that giant pain in the ass. He knew he should have taken the room on the honors floor when it was offered, but he had wanted the real college experience. Well, here it was.

As the door closed behind him, he heard Tony laugh and then close his own door. Swearing under his breath, Steve stripped off his shirt, crawled under the covers, and prayed that he'd be able to manage a few more hours of sleep. Just as he was drifting off, the music was still going, but he thought that maybe it had been turned down just a bit. Certainly not enough to make him change his mind about Tony, but it was better than nothing.

* * *

Tony woke up the next morning to the pounding of his head. Groaning, he managed to lift it an inch or so off the pillow to check the time on his alarm. Noon. Shit. Well, there were another 2 or 3 classes he had missed, but he'd make up the work like he always did. It drove the teachers crazy, and he was sure that some of them would try to penalize him for his absences, but the truth was that he was smart enough that he really didn't need to go. At least not often. It wasn't that he was arrogant, it was the truth. School had always come easy to him even though, or maybe because of that, it didn't interest him much.

Squinting at the sun streaming through the window, he cursed himself for not having shut it last night before passing out. And for all the drinking. He couldn't quite remember the entire evening, but seeing as there was no one else with him, he had apparently ended the night alone. Rolling over and burying his face in the pillow, Tony briefly considered going back to sleep, but decided that he should probably make it to at least one class today. Stumbling out of his door on the way to the bathroom, he nearly ran into someone walking past.

" 'Scuse me" he croaked, still waking up.

"Uh huh" the guy grunted, walking past and into the room next door.

_Rude_, Tony thought to himself, but as he continued on his way, flashes of the night before came to him. He vaguely remembered that guy knocking on his door. He was complaining about something. The noise? Probably. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what he had said to the guy though. Judging by how friendly he was this morning, it wasn't very smooth. The guy was cute though, maybe he should apologize. For whatever.

* * *

Steve was in his usual place, hunched over his desk staring at textbook, trying in vain to memorize everything he needed to. The room was blessedly quiet, but he assumed that was just because Tony wasn't home from whatever party was happening yet. He had run into him earlier in the afternoon, but the guy had looked so hungover, he doubted that Tony even realized it was him or remembered him in the first place.

His concentration was broken by a knock at the door. Glad for the distraction, he answered, only to see Tony standing there before him.

"Hey" Tony said, smiling at him.

"Hey"

"Listen, I just wanted to apologize for last night. If we're being honest here, I don't know exactly what I'm apologizing for, but being me, I'm sure I did something" he said, laughing sheepishly.

Steve just stood staring for a moment. He was still torn between hanging on to his irritation and forgiving the guy. He did seem kind of genuine and he was cute…

"Just had your own personal rave going on in the middle of the night, by the sound of it."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry, really. I've been accused of being oblivious to my surroundings and my inconveniencing others."

"Its fine, but it would be great if you could keep it down from now on. I'm really swamped with homework –"

"Yeah, I totally know what you mean."

"Do you?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tony asked, a little taken aback by Steve's comment. It's not like he was the only one with classes and papers to write.

"Nothing, sorry. I mean, it just seems like you're out a lot, and have a lot of, uh… company. Doesn't sound like a lot of work getting done. Not that I was listening," Steve rambled, blushing as he realized what he had said. Now Tony probably thought he was some kind of perv that listened to his hookups through the wall.

"Yeah, well, like I said, sorry about the noise. I'll try to keep it down" Tony said shortly, the smile gone from his face. He turned abruptly and walked back into his room, closing the door with a little more force than necessary.

Steve felt bad, but reasoned to himself that nothing he had said was wrong. If the guy had a problem with people assuming things about him, maybe he should take school more seriously and then it wouldn't be an issue. He had convinced himself of that for a while, but as he lay in bed later, waiting to fall asleep, doubts began to creep in and he felt worse and worse. Not that he was wrong about it all being true, but he never liked upsetting someone. And Tony had definitely seemed upset. He didn't know the guy's whole story, true. Or any of his story, really. So maybe he had jumped to some conclusions…

* * *

The next night it was Tony's turn to be interrupted by a knock at the door. He was actually hard at work on some overdue papers for his various classes, which he told himself was absolutely not because of what Steve had said the night before. What did he know? It was college. Everyone partied. And all his work got done eventually. It was Steve's problem if he was wasting the opportunity to have a good time while he was here.

He opened the door and there Steve stood, shifting nervously in front of him.

"Yeah?" Tony asked impatiently, still annoyed.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about last night. I know we don't even know each other, so I shouldn't have said anything. I don't have room to talk, I don't think I've left my room for anything except class or meals" Steve said, his face flushing slightly with embarrassment. "I guess a nerd doesn't change much just because he's in college…"

"You were a nerd?" Tony asked with surprise, "You don't look like one." Sure he seemed to spend all his time alone in his room and was a little too into his schoolwork, but the guy was nicely built. He had to have a fairly regular workout routine happening. Plus he was tall, had cute hair, and dressed like pretty much every other college guy with jeans and a rumpled t-shirt.

"Heh, yeah. Well, I found out that getting bigger and stronger than the bullies shut them up pretty quick. Good thing they never figured out that I would have still been too big of a wuss to do anything" he admitted.

They lapsed into an awkward silence, neither knowing what else to say.

"So anyway, yeah… just wanted to say sorry. I didn't know what I was talking about and should have kept my mouth shut. Guess I still need to work on my social skills a little" Steve said, preparing to head back into his room.

"Wait" Tony said, grabbing his arm to stop him. "I acted like an ass first. How about a buy you a drink to make up for it? It'll give you a chance to get out of your room for once, right? And I could definitely use a break from this stupid essay"

"Uh, sure" Steve answered. "That'd be…great. Let me just go grab a clean shirt and I'll meet you out front?"

"Great, see ya in a few" Tony said, watching him walk the few feet back to his room. He felt the goofy grin on his face, but didn't care. He wasn't sure where the drinks would lead. Maybe to a new friend and neighbor, maybe to more, but either way he got the feeling it would be a good thing.


End file.
